Class conflict in a Somerset town: Bridgwater 1924-1927

Bridgwater Co-operative Society on the march in 1926

Bridgwater Civic Society for its March meeting hosts a talk by Dave Chapple based on his 2006 book on the General Strike in Bridgwater.

Entitled 'Bridgwater 1924-1927: Class Confict in a Somerset town' Dave's talk will have two parts:

For the first part Dave will describe what kind of town Bridgwater was during the mid-1920's, and in particular its social, musical, religious, politcal and economic life.

For the second part Dave will narrate the sometimes dramatic events of the nine days in May 1926, when local brickyard, railway, transport, dock/wharf, building and engineering workers in this Somerset working-class town struck, not for their own immediate ends,but to prevent the defeat and humiliation of the nation's coal miners at the hands of a Tory Government with Winston Churchill as Home Secretary.

Dave Chapple talking about Bridgwater's radical past
on last years Socialist History walk.

Dave's talk will take place at 7.30pm this coming Wednesday the 27th March.

The venue is the Victoria Park Community Centre, Victoria Park, Bridgwater.

Please note that Bridgwater Civic Society asks visitors for a donation of £3 to help with running costs.

You can also join the society on the night when a programme of events for 2013/4 will be available.

Membership rates are: £10 individual; £15 husband/wife/partners; £2 student.

Somerset Trades Union Members support PCS Budget day Action

"Lets Unite and Fight Together"
Dave Chapple (Secretary SATC)

Trades union members throughout Somerset joined civil service union PCS on picket lines yesterday, Budget Day, to express anger and disgust over the Government’s savage cuts in public sector jobs and essential services, and their refusal to negotiate an end to a four-year pay freeze for civil servants. The Chancellor announced he is extending the pay freeze (a real terms pay cut) into 2015-16. 

 

One quarter of a million public sector workers from job centres, tax offices, courts, ports and airports went on strike throughout Britain. There are more strikes planned, unless the government agrees to negotiate over pay and conditions.

Strike Action

 

At Weston’s County Court, court enforcement staff have been taking strike action over the last 2 months over the threatened privatisation of the enforcement and collection of fixed penalties and unpaid fines, which would put people at the mercy of unscrupulous private bailiffs, and reduce the effective fines and enforcement rates currently achieved by enforcement staff. A 'work to rule' by court staff has lead to a massive fall in fines revenue - proof that civil servants go above and beyond. Privatisation doesn’t work! 

 

 A strike rally in Bristol heard workers from Job Centres describe their daily experience of the misery perpetrated by a government which is slashing jobs and increasing sanctions on the unemployed and disabled. 

 

PCS Vice-President John McInally accused the government of using the economic crisis to destroy public services and shift the balance of wealth and power into the hands of a wealthy minority. “This is the longest recession since the 20s, and forecasts say it will last another 20 years, he said, “but the government’s austerity programme isn’t working and we must bring it to an end.”

General Strike

 

The Somerset Association of Trades Union Councils fully supports the PCS and joins demands for the TUC to call a 24-hour General Strike over the failed economic policies and triple-dip recession of an incompetent government which is punishing the poor, disabled and vulnerable for the greed and blunders of bankers and politicians.

 

SATC Secretary Dave Chapple said: “This government’s aim is the total privatisation of the civil service, along with health and education. Public sector workers deliver services more cheaply and efficiently than the private sector. The railways are living proof of the failure of privatisation. Let’s unite and fight together to destroy them before they destroy our society.”

Bridgwater TUC public meeting on Unemployment

BRIDGWATER & DISTRICT TRADES UNION COUNCIL

Invites you to a public meeting:

UNEMPLOYMENT: CAUSES & CURES

Monday 25^th March, 7pm,

Railway Club, Wellington Road, Bridgwater

• Why does the government care so little about the plight of the unemployed?
• Why are unemployed people harassed into “workfare”, supplying free labour to employers, rather than creating jobs?
• Why are employers encouraged to offer only temporary and part-time work?
• Why do employers use agencies to offer work at lower wages to workers from outside Britain?

What can we do about it?

SPEAKERS

Dave Chapple: Bridgwater Trades Union Council

Glenn Cane: local unemployed worker

Brett Sparkes: Regional Organiser, UNITE union

FURTHER DETAILS: 01278 450562

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS SINCE BEECHING

Baron Beeching of East Grinstead -whose's name is to this day
associated with the mass closure of railways

Friends Of Suburban Bristol Railways (FOSBR)

www.fosbr.org.uk

 

Friends of Suburban Bristol Railways (FOSBR) invite you to join us on Saturday 23 March to celebrate 50 years since the Beeching Report.

Rail Future and FOSBR will subsidise train tickets, hire a meeting room and provide refreshments at Halo Bar, 141, Gloucester Road, BS7 8BA. . If you live in Exmouth, Falmouth, Barnstable, Dawlish or near a station in Wales, your challenge is to find a train which arrives in time to catch the 13.16 from Bristol Temple Meads Station.

We hope you will join us on the scenic round trip from Bristol Temple Meads on Bristol’s only surviving branch line (which is also in Thomas Cook’s wonderful rail journeys) to Severn Beach and back to Montpelier Station. There we will stage a public demonstration on the platform with banners, placards and enlarged maps of the Bristol Metro and the Great Western Franchise areas. From there we will walk to the Halo Bar.

This celebration is an opportunity to show the world that local lines, such as AVOCET, Tarka, the Falmouth and Ebbw Vale, have flourished with community and local authority support. Travelling on the train and meeting at the Halo in a spacious room will give each group a chance to talk about their campaigns and future opportunities. We hope to finish by issuing a joint statement for the media.

Train times 13.16 depart Bristol Temple Meads Station / 14.21 alight at Montpelier Station / 16.50 depart from Montpelier Station/ 17.07 arrive at Temple Meads Station

Train tickets  Group save tickets - four for the price of two –from the same station make train travel more affordable. Please reply to Julie and Tina asap to let us know how you would like to be involved and how many tickets we need to budget for so that we can plan at the FOSBR committee meeting on 20 February. 

Invited:- rail groups, rail unions Bristol RMT,  ASLEF, TSSA, Devon & Cornwall Rail Future, Friends of Bridgwater Station, Portishead Rail Group, Severn Tunnel Action Group, Saltford Rail Group, MPs and councillors near stations, the Mayor of Bristol, Bristol Youth Mayors, Bristol Civic Society, representatives of political parties, Way out West, Secretary@travelwatchsouthwest.org, Pints West Bristol Pubs Group, Ramblers Wessex Walks'

FOSBR campaigns organiser       Julie Boston     julieboston17@hotmail.co.uk

FOSBR secretary                             Tina Biggs    cmbbiggs@googlemail.com

Bristol’s only surviving branch line celebrated 50 years of avoiding the Beeching cuts at its AGM on Saturday 26 January 2013.

RMT-'Rail Cuts potentially lethal consequences'

RAIL UNION RMT released a shocking new picture which shows six inches of rail head crumbled away to nothing leaving a potentially lethal gap in the track on the InterCity East Coast Mainline at Hambleton South Junction near Selby where normal running speeds are 125mph. The picture, taken last Friday (1st February), follows the publication by RMT of a similar damning photo taken at Colton Junction on the ECML just a few miles away back in December last year.

RMT believes that due to renewals and staffing cuts, an initial crack had crumbled away to a six inch gap in the rail head over a period of two weeks in a mirror image of the incident at Colton Junction, leaving trains, passengers and staff at risk of a serious and potentially lethal incident. A train could have derailed, jumped the tracks and collided with an on-coming service. Fortunately, the gap was spotted by on-track teams and the section of track has since been replaced but it raises serious questions about the impact of wear and tear on rail infrastructure, with high-speed trains running on tracks that should have been renewed, in a climate of cuts and sub-contracting.

'Potentially lethal consequences'

RMT understands that there is massive pressure to keep the ECML running from the government and the Department of Transport as they look to re-privatise the service. There are also persistent demands on Network Rail from the budget-holder, the Office of Rail Regulation, to cut back on rail renewals work despite the potentially-lethal consequences as exposed in graphic detail by RMT today.

However, pressure from RMT and a high-profile media campaign by the union, has forced RAIB (Rail Accident Investigation Branch) to now launch a full investigation into the condition of the track on the ECML, the latest shocking RMT pictures will fuel the urgency of that investigation which the union says must focus in on the impact of cuts to staffing and renewals and the consequences of sub-contracting core functions.

                                                 Reverse the Cuts!

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

"This shocking new picture highlights the reality on Britain's railways today - staffing, inspections and track renewals have been cut in the dash to save money and there is massive pressure right from the top of Government to keep services running at all costs regardless of the potential human cost. If we don’t reverse the cuts on Britain’s railways another major tragedy is inevitable.

"We are now facing exactly the same set of poisonous conditions that led us to the Hatfield disaster and as this picture, following on from similar evidence exposed by RMT late last year, shows we are dicing with death and risking another major rail tragedy. RMT is demanding action before it is too late and the RAIB investigation must look at the poisonous impact of cuts to staffing and renewals work and the sub-contracting of jobs that should be undertaken in-house.

"RMT has made it crystal clear that we want all cuts to staffing, maintenance and renewals reversed and all track works brought back in house rather than subbed-out to contractors. The current contractor staff should be transferred over to direct Network Rail employment. We also want the pressure from the centre to run services at any costs lifted to enable safety-critical works to take place immediately.

"Finally, we want an end to the further cuts proposed by the Government in its McNulty Rail Review before we end up with another rail tragedy on Britain's tracks with ministers paraded on our screens with blood on their hands. Those ministers have to take responsibility right now for the rail scandal that is unfolding on their watch".

12 weeks 2 save your Fire Service! Tell politicians No2FireCuts in twitter consultation: see poster have your say!

12 weeks 2 save your Fire Service! Tell politicians No2FireCuts in twitter consultation: see poster have your say!: 12 weeks 2 save your Fire Service! Tell politicians No2FireCuts in twitter consultation: see poster have your say!

Next Trades Council Meeting set for Monday 11th February

Bridgwater Trades Union Council will be holding their monthly meeting for February at the Railway Club, Wellington Road Bridgwater on  Monday 11th at 7.30.

The AGM was held in January and we are looking for affiliations for 2013.

We will also be holding regular surgeries for workplace issues before each meeting. Contact us for further details bridgwatertuc@gmail.com